Elsie Clews Parsons: Inventing Modern Life Volume 1997Paperback, 1 March 1999

Elsie Clews Parsons was a pioneering feminist, an eminent anthropologist, and an ardent social critic. In Elsie Clews Parsons, Desley Deacon reconstructs Parsons's efforts to overcome gender biases in both academia and society.

Wonderfully illuminating. . . . Parsons's work resonates strikingly to current trends in anthropology.--George W. Stocking, Jr., Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

This is the biography of a woman so interesting and effective--a cross between Margaret Mead and Georgia O'Keeffe. . . . A nuanced portrait of this vivid woman.--Tanya Luhrmann, New York Times Book Review

A marvelous new book about the life of Elsie Clews Parsons. . . . It's as though she is sitting on the next rock, a contemporary struggling with the same issues that confront women today: how to combine work, love and child-rearing into one life.--Abigail Trafford, Washington Post

Parsons's splendid life and work continue to illuminate current puzzles about acculturation and diversity.--New Yorker